The New Testament Church Was Preparing for the Government of God

If you have read the New Testament, you know that it offers hardly anything in the way of church governance that is useful today. That’s one reason why we have over 30,000 Christian denominations. Almost all of them claim to have arrived at their governmental structure either from the pages of the New Testament or from the authors of the New Testament. If that’s the case, why isn’t there one church and not 30,000? The answer is that the apostles left no direction for how the church was to be run after their departure because they expected the Lord to run it. The coming of the Lord was promised and expected in that generation. For this reason, we know that it occurred (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again).

Isaiah 9:6 had promised that the government would be upon the Son’s shoulders. The apostle Peter said to the elders who were reading his first letter that they should shepherd in anticipation of the coming of the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5) who would reward them if they were faithful. Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul told the believers in Corinth that they should labor toward the end that their work would remain and not be burned up with the coming of the Lord (read on to 1 Corinthians 4:5).

The apostles were preparing believers for the government of the Lord and nothing less. The very reason that you see organized Christianity divided into 30,000 pieces is that it is not governed by the Lord, for a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

If your spiritual government is of human origin, it will fail. And you will, too. Submit to God’s government. You do so by your sincere faith in Jesus Christ…and no one else.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ in terms familiar to those who read the Bible, and to help others become more familiar with the Bible. For those unfamiliar with the Bible, look to the blog A Nonchurchgoer’s Guide to Jesus and His Kingdom.